Romania row over junk food tax

In order to stop obesity from spreading, Romanian legislators are making a bid for a comprehensive junk food tax.

According
to the country's health ministry, one in two Romanians are overweight, and obesity doubled in just four years.

The reason may have to do with the country's food culture, where dishes tend to have a high fat content.

In recent years, however, fast food restaurants such as McDonalds have become increasingly popular in Romania.

Adrian
Streinu-Cercel, secretary of state for the health ministry, said that
he felt Romanians needed to be re-educated on how to feed themselves
properly.

Dragos Frumosu, head of the industrial food producers
union, disagreed, and said that Romanians ate badly because they were
poor.

While the government wants to begin taxing fast food
within the next few weeks, they have not yet voted on a list of foods
that will be taxed.

Oxford scientist Dushy Clarke, whose
research concentrates on the impact of health-related taxes, said that
such a tax would be the widest-ranging singular tax of its kind, and
would also be the first of its kind to go straight to producers and
importers of junk food.

He said that junk food taxes in other
countries usually concern sweets and sugary drinks, and that Romania's
tax was different in that it also taxed savoury foods.

Taiwan and France are among the list of countries which have also considered adopting their own junk food taxes.

However, the effort to tax junk food in France has long since been shelved.